After sluggish start, Adonis Thomas' season heating up for University of Memphis

John Martin

5:21 PM, Feb 21, 2013

Memphis' Adonis Thomas (middle) drives to the basket by Houston's Jherrod Stiggers (left) and Brandon Morris (right) during first half action at FedExForum.

In University of Memphis coach Josh Pastner's eyes, sophomore swingman Adonis Thomas is like an unbaked cake. Just like you wouldn't eat a cake that hadn't been baked, it wasn't fair earlier in the season for Thomas's sophomore year to be written off as disappointing just because his scoring was down and his 3-point shot was off.

"He's an elite player," Pastner said. "He's a stud. People gotta let the cake bake. Sometimes, people mature at a different rate. Let the cake bake. Can't eat a cake if it's not baked yet. You'll get food poisoning."

Though at times this season Thomas looked as if he were battling that ailment himself, he has put together an impressive month of February as the Tigers (23-3, 12-0 Conference USA) continue to pad their winning streak. They go for 18 straight on Saturday against Southern Mississippi at FedExForum.

In the last five games, the 6-7 Thomas is averaging 17.4 points and seven rebounds. He set a career-high with 23 points against Marshall last Saturday and was a basket from setting a new one in Wednesday's 81-74 win against Houston.

"(It's) just having that confidence and seeing those shots go in," Thomas said. "Earlier in the season, I missed some shots and I got kind of down on myself because I knew how hard I worked on it. Seeing those shots go down now is giving me a lot of confidence and my teammates are getting me involved as well."

Despite his struggles in earlier outings, Pastner continued to run plays that catered to Thomas offensively. Other than the Tigers' 83-65 win against Austin Peay — in which Thomas was forced to leave due to an eye injury — Pastner has doled out major minutes for his sophomore and essentially allowed him to play through his trials.

"I've always had tremendous belief and faith in Adonis," Pastner said. "That's why I kept telling everyone. Let the cake bake. Let it happen naturally and in due time it was all gonna work out for him."

According to DraftExpress.com president Jonathan Givony, however, that cake isn't quite ready yet to be boxed up and put on display. Though Thomas' numbers have gone up this month, Givony said he would be hard-pressed to find his way back into the first round of the draft this year.

"Barring some type of explosion in March I think it's probably going to be tough for him to recover his stock after the way he played for most of this season," Givony said Thursday. "A couple of good games in a deep NCAA tournament run might change people's thinking, but it seems the damage has been done."

Thomas, averaging 11.8 points and 4.4 rebounds on the season, is currently projected as the 27th pick in the second round of DraftExpress' latest 2014 mock draft, but Pastner and Thomas aren't concerned with that.

For now, Pastner believes a confident Thomas has elevated the Tigers in the last month with his scoring and rebounding, especially on the offensive glass.

"With how hard he works — when you have great drive and relentless work ethic — good things are gonna happen," Pastner said.